Charismatic leaders make great facilitators. They easily connect with others, making them feel seen, heard, and understood. Their confidence and positivity create an environment of trust where creativity flourishes. And a new study in Frontiers in Communication shows robots can do the same — provided they strike the right tone.
Speech can inspire, motivate, and persuade. Just think of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”, one of the most iconic speeches in American history. The way something is said can matter more than what is said. That’s true for people, and researchers in Denmark found it applies to robots too.
The team of academics experimented with a robot facilitating creative workshops. There were two versions of the robot: one used a charismatic voice, and the other a neutral one. Groups guided by the former were more creative.
Dr Kerstin Fischer from the University of Southern Denmark said, “Our findings indicated that when the robot adopted a charismatic speaking style, students’ ideas exhibited greater originality and elaboration.”
For the study, 100 students from universities in Denmark and Switzerland dialled into a Zoom call to attend the creativity workshop they signed up for. Split into teams of 3 or 4, each group watched a video of the robot introducing itself. It then presented the first exercise: look at a picture of a beach and write anything that comes to mind on digital Post-it notes. For example, ‘palm trees’ or ‘Hawaii’.
Three minutes later, the robot returned to the screen. It explained that next, the group would ideate a new chocolate product to be sold in grocery stores, using the descriptions generated by the team during the first task. Say, a chocolate bar in the shape of a palm tree.
After seven minutes of brainstorming, the robot appeared one last time. It congratulated the group on their hard work. Then, it asked them to complete a questionnaire about the robot and the team’s performance.
Some found the experience quite bizarre. Students in one class even thought the questionnaires were a joke. After all, they signed up for a creativity workshop. In a debrief, however, the researchers confessed to participants they were in a study about human-robot interaction.
So, the procedure was the same for everyone, but the experience varied. Dr Kerstin Fischer explained, “The robot employed either a confident, passionate – that is, charismatic – tone of voice, or a regular, straightforward tone of voice.”
Students guided by the charismatic voice rated the robot more passionate, enthusiastic, charming, and less boring and uninspiring. Team creativity was also better. The participants found more new ideas and changed perspectives more often.
Groups led by the neutral voice did not do as well. Still, the teams felt they were resilient and benefitted from discipline, perseverance and focus.
Dr Oliver Niebuhr, an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering department at the University of Southern Denmark and CEO of speech technology company AllGoodSpeakers ApS, was not surprised by the result. He said, “I had suspected that charismatic speech has very important effects, but our study offers compelling evidence regarding the influence of charismatic speech on listener creativity.”
Inspiring teams to produce high-quality original work is a valuable and in-demand skill. Robots could offer a lower-cost alternative for organisations with occasional needs, like small companies or cash-strapped start-ups.
Still, how would you feel about choosing a canned voice from a range of flavours to match your objective? I don’t know. Still, I’d give it a go – the experience would be memorable one way or another.
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Source: newswise
Journal link: Frontiers in Communication